"9 hour wait"

My 7 week baby became unwell and was struggling to breathe, 30 min wait on ambulance. Crew were excellent and very reassuring and thought there could be infection. When arriving at FVRH we were taken into waiting area and triaged very quickly. However I did not have confidence in the triage nurse they seemed dismissive of his symptoms and severity. Also retested his blood sugars with no clinical indication to do this due to only being done 30 mins before with ambulance crew with no issues, heel pricking a newborn again did not seem appropriate and felt I did not have enough explanation or time to consent to this. Triage felt very rushed. I don’t know if they had taken note of the full handover, it felt like we were not a priority. 

Initially told of a 5 hour wait which kept increasing and increasing. Waiting area full with unwell children not being seen. Waiting areas and toilets both dirty. 2 children had vomited on floor and no one had cleaned this up in the whole duration we were in the waiting area despite reception being aware of this. Extremely uncomfortable wait for anyone never mind waiting with a newborn baby who was unwell. Several parents left with children which in my opinion were unwell and needed to be seen. Vending machines not working there’s nothing to keep patients comfortable. If you go to an and e it is an emergency so you don’t come prepared with food and drink for children so the fact no vending machine was available worsens this. As a nurse myself it was my opinion that there were not one child in that waiting area who were not clinically unwell and needed to be seen, they all deserved care in a timely manner. I feel like the children on that evening were extremely let down and forgotten about, no one checked to see if they were okay and children can deteriorate very quickly. 

I was becoming increasingly more anxious for my baby and relayed this to receptionist that he was clearly in pain however still was not seen for another hour after escalating my concerns. Eventually we were seen by another triage nurse and then doctor who were both excellent and apologetic for the wait. Both picked up on my concerns that my baby was unwell. It is not the staffs fault the department could not cope with the level of patients. 

We have just been discharged from a 3 day stay in children’s ward so it was absolutely appropriate that we were seen as my baby was unwell and had an infection and will require follow up investigations . I do not think it is acceptable to wait 9 hours in an and e with a 7 week old unwell baby. I understand the need for people who are more clinically unwell to be seen first however I don’t feel the initial triage nurse picked up on the severity of how unwell my baby was. If I need to wait for care I don’t expect to have to wait in unclean environments with blood, urine and vomit. Extremely poor on NHS Forth Valley management and Scottish government do not believe this is the fault of nursing or medical staff who come to work to help people.